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Cloud computing allows IT administrators to give their users near-unbridled access to IT resources. However, to maintain control over growth and capacity utilization, it is important to make users aware of the costs of the resources that they consume. This can be a challenge for OpenStack cloud operators since available solutions may require customization to correctly interpret OpenStack data points.

Fortunately, VMware vRealize Business (vRB) is capable of assisting IT administrators with this task. As shown in Figure 1, vRB provides a dashboard that breaks down operating costs according to the various factors of running a data center. vRB calculates these costs according to the number of VMs in the environment and combines that data with information in its repository of data center costs to produce the reports.

Figure 1: OpenStack Cost Analysis with vRealize Business

When OpenStack provisions workloads in VMware vSphere, the Nova driver automatically populates the VMs with tag information that vRealize Business can use to identify OpenStack workloads. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: VMware vRealize Business Uses OpenStack Metadata

vRB can display OpenStack operations costs on a per-tenant basis, and this simplifies showback/chargeback to specific teams of users. Further, there are additional capabilities like Cloud Comparison that allow you to observe differences in costs for operating your workloads in-house vs on popular public cloud providers.

About Trevor Roberts Jr.

Trevor Roberts, Jr. is the Senior Technical Marketing Manager for OpenStack at VMware and the lead author of the VMware Press title, “DevOps for VMware Administrators". He enjoys speaking to customers and partners about the benefits of using OpenStack with VMware technologies.
In his spare time, Trevor shares his insights on data center technologies via the VMware Blogs and on Twitter (@VMTrooper). His contributions to the IT community have garnered recognition by his designation as a VMware vExpert, Cisco Data Center Champion, and EMC Elect.